"Lookee my new pickup truck...!"

...is what I could be saying next month, if I'm guessing correctly at my wife's birthday plans for me. Shhh! Don't let her know that I'm on to her surprise...



This, friends, is a Terex I Unit Rig MT 5500. The seriousness of the name alone should be enough to send your average jacked-up 4X4 scampering away to Off Road Warehouse for some serious parts upgrades. Most people wouldn't consider me a pickup truck type, but I have to admit that they'd occasionally be useful for hauling brush and trips to Menard's.

With a 720,000 pound capacity, there isn't much that this puppy won't haul--including a parted-out Boeing 747-400, should the need arise. It also features "tailgate protection to protect the operator in the event of a truck collision," although I wouldn't expect any real damage to occur from a collision with anything less than another Terex I Unit Rig MT 5500. I also wouldn't suspect one would even notice that they'd been involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer, M1 Abrams, the local Wal-Mart, or any other less substantial object.

And the engine? Oooh, the engine!



It's a Cummins QSK60 16 cylinder, 4 stroke diesel with two-stage turbocharging. Its 3,672 cubic inches pump out 2,700 brake horsepower and 8000 foot-pounds of torque at a loafy 1500 RPM. Sure, someone will try to one-up me by shoehorning the 3,500 HP QSK78 into theirs, but I'm not getting this truck out of any sense of one-upmanship. No sir/ma'am: Escalades and Excursions are nice, but would you really want to shovel grass and rocks into one? This truck is a necessity. The fact that it's a two-seater seems to be its only limitation. Call me if you need to borrow it!